Smarter Week

How to automate it

How to automate “review employee expense reports and receipts”

Here is the best way to spend less time on this, best first. Each comes with steps you can follow today.

30 min
typically, a few times a week
65%
of the time can be automated
Easy
to set up

Fix 1 of 1

Software feature

Let the expense tool flag policy breaks so you review only exceptions

Ramp, Brex, Expensify, Navan and SAP Concur check receipts against policy and flag missing receipts, duplicates and over-limit spend.

Typically saves about 60% of the time1 h to set up
  1. 1Write your policy limits into the tool (meals, travel, receipts over $X).
  2. 2Turn on automatic receipt matching and duplicate detection.
  3. 3Auto-approve compliant reports under a set amount.
  4. 4Review only the flagged items each week.

Tools: Ramp · Brex · Expensify · Navan · SAP Concur

Quick wins

Have you tried…

Does your expense tool flag out-of-policy spend so you only review the exceptions?
Ramp, Brex, Expensify and Concur check each receipt against your policy and auto-approve the clean ones. You look only at what they flag.

Who does this task

Roles in our library that list this as one of their common tasks. Each guide covers the rest of that role’s week.

HourLeak · the 8-minute work audit

How many hours does this cost you?

The free 8-minute check works out where your week goes and gives you your top fixes. The team scan does the same for everyone and adds it up, so you know which leaks to fix first.

Answers are anonymous. Leaders only see team totals.

Other common tasks for AP / AR specialists